Light water breeder reactor program.

"June 1976."

Model laws for the transition from nucleate to film boiling with forced convection /

"Report title: Theoretical investigations of the transition from bubble boiling to film boiling at forced convection"--p. v.

Nuclear energy for water desalting : a bibliography /

Included are 120 references to publications on the use of nuclear energy in the production of potable water from saline or brackish waters. The uses of nuclear reactors, radioisotopic heat sources, and nuclear explosives are covered in relation to the various possible desalination methods available. Author and report number--availability indexes are included.

Proceedings of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Eleventh Water Reactor Safety Research Information Meeting, held at National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, October 24-28, 1983 /

Includes bibliographies.

Transactions of the Eleventh Water Reactor Safety Research Information Meeting, to be held at National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, October 24-28, 1983 /

Includes summaries of papers reporting on research sponsored by the office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, USNRC.

Proceedings of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Twelfth Water Reactor Safety Research Information Meeting, held at National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, October 22-26, 1983 [i.e. 1984] /

Includes bibliographies.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of nitrifiers in piggery wastewater treatment reactors

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed to analyze the nitrifying microbial communities in an activated sludge reactor (ASR) and a fixed biofilm reactor (FBR) for piggery wastewater treatment. Heterotrophic oxidation and nitrification were occurring simultaneously in the ASR and the COD and nitrification efficiencies depend on the loads. In the FBR nitrification efficiency also depends on ammonium load to the reactor and nitrite was accumulated when free ammonia concentration was higher than 0.2 mg NH3-N/L. FISH analysis showed that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (NSO1225) and denitrifying bacteria (RRP1088) were less abundant than other bacteria (EUB338) in ASR. Further analysis on nitrifying bacteria in the FBR showed that Nitrosomonas species (NSM156) and Nitrospira species (NSR1156) were the dominant ammonia-oxidizing and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, respectively, in the piggery wastewater nitrification system.

Flow regime, hydrodynamics, floc size distribution and sludge properties in activated sludge bubble column, air-lift and aerated stirred reactors

This paper presents a comparative study how reactor configuration, sludge loading and air flowrate affect flow regimes, hydrodynamics, floc size distribution and sludge solids-liquid separation properties. Three reactor configurations were studied in bench scale activated sludge bubble column reactor (BCR), air-lift reactor (ALR) and aerated stirred reactor (ASR). The ASR demonstrated the highest capacity of gas holdup and resistance, and homogeneity in flow regimes and shearing forces, resulting in producing large numbers of small and compact floes. The fluid dynamics in the ALR created regularly directed recirculation forces to enhance the gas holdup and sludge flocculation. The BCR distributed a high turbulent flow regime and non-homogeneity in gas holdup and mixing, and generated large numbers of larger and looser floes. The sludge size distributions, compressibility and settleability were significantly influenced by the reactor configurations associated with the flow regimes and hydrodynamics.

Applicability of experience from laboratory reactors with biological phosphorus removal in full-scale plants

Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) has been used at many wastewater treatment plants all over the world for many years. In this study a full-scale sludge with good EBPR was tested with P-release batch tests and combined FISH/MAR (fluorescence in situ hybridisation and microautoradiography). Proposed models of PAOs and GAOs (polyphosphate- and glycogen-accumulating organisms) and microbial methods suggested from studies of laboratory reactors were found to be applicable also on sludge from full-scale plants. Dependency of pH and the uptake of both acetate and propionate were studied and used for calculations for verifying the models and results from microbial methods. All rates found from the batch tests with acetate were higher than in the batch tests with propionate, which was explained by the finding that only those parts of the bacterial community that were able to take up acetate anaerobically were able to take up propionate anaerobically.

Computationsl modelling of dimethyl ether separation and steam reforming in fluidized bed reactors

This study presents a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) study of Dimethyl Ether (DME) gas adsorptive separation and steam reforming (DME-SR) in a large scale Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) reactor. The CFD model is based on Eulerian-Eulerian dispersed flow and solved using commercial software (ANSYS FLUENT). Hydrogen is currently receiving increasing interest as an alternative source of clean energy and has high potential applications, including the transportation sector and power generation. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling has attracted considerable recognition in the engineering sector consequently leading to using it as a tool for process design and optimisation in many industrial processes. In most cases, these processes are difficult or expensive to conduct in lab scale experiments. The CFD provides a cost effective methodology to gain detailed information up to the microscopic level. The main objectives in this project are to: (i) develop a predictive model using ANSYS FLUENT (CFD) commercial code to simulate the flow hydrodynamics, mass transfer, reactions and heat transfer in a large scale dual fluidized bed system for combined gas separation and steam reforming processes (ii) implement a suitable adsorption models in the CFD code, through a user defined function, to predict selective separation of a gas from a mixture (iii) develop a model for dimethyl ether steam reforming (DME-SR) to predict hydrogen production (iv) carry out detailed parametric analysis in order to establish ideal operating conditions for future industrial application. The project has originated from a real industrial case problem in collaboration with the industrial partner Dow Corning (UK) and jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Research Council (UK) and Dow Corning. The research examined gas separation by adsorption in a bubbling bed, as part of a dual fluidized bed system. The adsorption process was simulated based on the kinetics derived from the experimental data produced as part of a separate PhD project completed under the same fund. The kinetic model was incorporated in FLUENT CFD tool as a pseudo-first order rate equation; some of the parameters for the pseudo-first order kinetics were obtained using MATLAB. The modelling of the DME adsorption in the designed bubbling bed was performed for the first time in this project and highlights the novelty in the investigations. The simulation results were analysed to provide understanding of the flow hydrodynamic, reactor design and optimum operating condition for efficient separation. Bubbling bed validation by estimation of bed expansion and the solid and gas distribution from simulation agreed well with trends seen in the literatures. Parametric analysis on the adsorption process demonstrated that increasing fluidizing velocity reduced adsorption of DME. This is as a result of reduction in the gas residence time which appears to have much effect compared to the solid residence time. The removal efficiency of DME from the bed was found to be more than 88%. Simulation of the DME-SR in FLUENT CFD was conducted using selected kinetics from literature and implemented in the model using an in-house developed user defined function. The validation of the kinetics was achieved by simulating a case to replicate an experimental study of a laboratory scale bubbling bed by Vicente et al [1]. Good agreement was achieved for the validation of the models, which was then applied in the DME-SR in the large scale riser section of the dual fluidized bed system. This is the first study to use the selected DME-SR kinetics in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) system and for the geometry size proposed for the project. As a result, the simulation produced the first detailed data on the spatial variation and final gas product in such an industrial scale fluidized bed system. The simulation results provided insight in the flow hydrodynamic, reactor design and optimum operating condition. The solid and gas distribution in the CFB was observed to show good agreement with literatures. The parametric analysis showed that the increase in temperature and steam to DME molar ratio increased the production of hydrogen due to the increased DME conversions, whereas the increase in the space velocity has been found to have an adverse effect. Increasing temperature between 200 oC to 350 oC increased DME conversion from 47% to 99% while hydrogen yield increased substantially from 11% to 100%. The CO2 selectivity decreased from 100% to 91% due to the water gas shift reaction favouring CO at higher temperatures. The higher conversions observed as the temperature increased was reflected on the quantity of unreacted DME and methanol concentrations in the product gas, where both decreased to very low values of 0.27 mol% and 0.46 mol% respectively at 350 °C. Increasing the steam to DME molar ratio from 4 to 7.68 increased the DME conversion from 69% to 87%, while the hydrogen yield increased from 40% to 59%. The CO2 selectivity decreased from 100% to 97%. The decrease in the space velocity from 37104 ml/g/h to 15394 ml/g/h increased the DME conversion from 87% to 100% while increasing the hydrogen yield from 59% to 87%. The parametric analysis suggests an operating condition for maximum hydrogen yield is in the region of 300 oC temperatures and Steam/DME molar ratio of 5. The analysis of the industrial sponsor’s case for the given flow and composition of the gas to be treated suggests that 88% of DME can be adsorbed from the bubbling and consequently producing 224.4t/y of hydrogen in the riser section of the dual fluidized bed system. The process also produces 1458.4t/y of CO2 and 127.9t/y of CO as part of the product gas. The developed models and parametric analysis carried out in this study provided essential guideline for future design of DME-SR at industrial level and in particular this work has been of tremendous importance for the industrial collaborator in order to draw conclusions and plan for future potential implementation of the process at an industrial scale.

Mixing performance evaluation of additive manufactured milli-scale reactors

The mixing performance of three passive milli-scale reactors with different geometries was investigated at different Reynolds numbers. The effects of design and operating characteristics such as mixing channel shape and volume flow rate were investigated. The main objective of this work was to demonstrate a process design method that uses on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for modeling and Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology for manufacture. The reactors were designed and simulated using SolidWorks and Fluent 15.0 software, respectively. Manufacturing of the devices was performed with an EOS M-series AM system. Step response experiments with distilled Millipore water and sodium hydroxide solution provided time-dependent concentration profiles. Villermaux-Dushman reaction experiments were also conducted for additional verification of CFD results and for mixing efficiency evaluation of the different geometries. Time-dependent concentration data and reaction evaluation showed that the performance of the AM-manufactured reactors matched the CFD results reasonably well. The proposed design method allows the implementation of new and innovative solutions, especially in the process design phase, for industrial scale reactor technologies. In addition, rapid implementation is another advantage due to the virtual flow design and due to the fast manufacturing which uses the same geometric file formats.

Integrated micro fuel cells with on-board hydride reactors and autonomous control schemes

Miniaturization of power generators to the MEMS scale, based on the hydrogen-air fuel cell, is the object of this research. The micro fuel cell approach has been adopted for advantages of both high power and energy densities. On-board hydrogen production/storage and an efficient control scheme that facilitates integration with a fuel cell membrane electrode assembly (MEA) are key elements for micro energy conversion. Millimeter-scale reactors (ca. 10 µL) have been developed, for hydrogen production through hydrolysis of CaH2 and LiAlH4, to yield volumetric energy densities of the order of 200 Whr/L. Passive microfluidic control schemes have been implemented in order to facilitate delivery, self-regulation, and at the same time eliminate bulky auxiliaries that run on parasitic power. One technique uses surface tension to pump water in a microchannel for hydrolysis and is self-regulated, based on load, by back pressure from accumulated hydrogen acting on a gas-liquid microvalve. This control scheme improves uniformity of power delivery during long periods of lower power demand, with fast switching to mass transport regime on the order of seconds, thus providing peak power density of up to 391.85 W/L. Another method takes advantage of water recovery by backward transport through the MEA, of water vapor that is generated at the cathode half-cell reaction. This regulation-free scheme increases available reactor volume to yield energy density of 313 Whr/L, and provides peak power density of 104 W/L. Prototype devices have been tested for a range of duty periods from 2-24 hours, with multiple switching of power demand in order to establish operation across multiple regimes. Issues identified as critical to the realization of the integrated power MEMS include effects of water transport and byproduct hydrate swelling on hydrogen production in the micro reactor, and ambient relative humidity on fuel cell performance.